Cruise (automotive)

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A cruise is a meeting of car enthusiasts at a predetermined location, organised predominantly through the internet (in recent times) but also largely through mobile phone, word of mouth or simply by a cruise being established enough that it becomes a regular event.

There are 2 main types of cruise: regular cruises, also known as meets, and one-off cruises.

A meet is a regular gathering, usually weekly or monthly, where the time and place is freely publicised and well known. It is becoming more common these days for these events to be referred to as cruises.

A one-off cruise is an event organised by a particular group of people or club which would usually be advertised through cruise websites. A cruise is usually on a Saturday and the final location is normally kept secret, known to convoy leaders only in an attempt to keep the cruise unknown to the police until there are a large enough numbers of people at the cruise to make it difficult to disperse.

One off cruises tend to be larger than meets but the larger meets can have magazine attendance. This type of cruise is in the ascendancy in recent times due to increased police interest in regular cruises.

Meets are as previously stated, a cruise which has established itself enough so people just know when and where it is and turn up regularly. These cruises are not usually organised by anyone in particular, or the original organisers are no longer part of the scene. An example of this type of cruise is Ponty (Pontefract) cruise which is rumoured to have been running for over a decade and is unconnected to the website of the same name.

Regardless of the type of cruise the events that take place are similar, cars park up or cruise (drive slowly) around the car park while people socialise, often meeting people from cruise websites, show off their cars and admire other people's cars. If there is enough space there are often drag races, burnouts; spinning a car's tyres intentionally in order to produce smoke and doughnuts; forcing a car to lose traction and slide in a circular motion.

This is a typical example of where a group of friends meet up at the same location at the same time every week. This then snowballs into 100s of cars meeting up without anyone actually knowing the people who started the meet. As this happens every week usually the amount of cars increases to the point where it becomes a nuisance and the police and council take action to stop the event.

This is why large cruises operate a convoy only policy.

1 Locations
2 Cruisers
3 Cars
4 Cruising and the law
5 Magazines

[edit] Locations

This article or section deals primarily with the United Kingdom and does not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Cruises are held all across the UK, from towns as far North as Inverness in Scotland to Brighton and Southend on the South coast. Generally they are held in retail parks due to the large open car parks needed to accommodate high attendance numbers (sometimes 500+ cars) found at such places or on the seafront of coastal cruises. Naturally, with many cruises situated in retail parks, most cruise locations are also in close proximity to fast food restaurants such as McDonald's or Burger King.

Cruising seems to be more prevalent in smaller cities and towns, reasons for this include a greater reliance on cars due to distances to be travelled, less police interference and less alternative forms of entertainment.

[edit] Cruisers

A typical cruiser would be a young man who drives a modified car. However there is a growing incidence of girls modifying their cars and attending cruises. There is also a growing number of older people attending cruises. Modifications can take many forms including bodykits and In Car Entertainment (ICE) as represented by the likes of Max Power and Fast Car magazines, motorsport influenced modifications such as engine tuning, roll cages, race seats and harnesses, and "Euro" styling where the emphasis is on a smooth, low look with small wide wheels. Influences are also drawn from the US "import tuning" and Japanese D1 (drifting) styles.

Aside from the modified car drivers found at cruises there are several other groups which can be found at most cruises. Highly tuned, high performance cars are usually present, mainly owned by the older cruiser which differ from motorsport inspired modified cars by their sole focus on performance and that they began life as an expensive sport car as opposed to being modified to become one. Local young teens often attend cruises en masse riding 50cc scooters; these are seen as the poor relatives of the cruise scene and are generally looked down on. As a stark contrast to the typical bodykitted small engined hatch which attempts to look fast whilst being slow there are also cruisers who prefer to have the exact opposite. Typical cars of this type would be such as the Uno Turbo, a 2.0 16v Nova or any old car with a large new engine.

Cruisers are not necessarily "boy racers", this term originally referred to a person who drove in an irresponsible manner but has been extended to almost any young, hot hatch or modified car driver, particularly with emphasis on modified vehicles.

[edit] Cars

Alongside the stereotypical warm and hot hatches favoured by cruisers sports saloons and coupes are popular with the more mature cruiser where insurance is less prohibitive.

Example hot hatches -

Example sports saloons/coupes -

Cruise cars have a particular life span, the newest models will be very rare at cruises until they reach a price point where the average cruiser can afford them, then on becoming cheaper and more common, modified examples will begin to appear. Eventually newer models will reach the first stage in the life span and the older models will reduce in numbers. This life cycle can be observed in the drastic reduction in the number of Vauxhall Novas at cruises in the past five years and the increase in Corsas and Citroën Saxos. After becoming rare enough, particularly powerful or rare cars of an older era can become highly respected again such as the Escort RS Turbo and Peugeot 205 GTI. Other factors also earn respect.

Externally from the life span, the popularity of any model can be greatly increased by a successful "hot" derivative as seen with the number of base model Citroën Saxos due to the success of the warm VTR model and hot VTS model.

[edit] Cruising and the law

Although cruising is not a crime in itself there are many illegal activities associated with it and as such cruises are often monitored by the police or even closed. The most commonly cited reasons for breaking up cruises are breach of the peace, caused by loud exhausts and sound systems disturbing local residents and dangerous driving i.e. racing, burnouts and doughnuts. Police also claim that cruises are used as cover for drug dealing and are attended by stolen or otherwise illegal cars.^{[citation needed]} More recently police have been using ASBO laws which enable them to seize and impound cars if anti-social behaviour is taking place or if a group refuses to disperse from an area.

As a result of increased police powers legal cruises have been established such as Weston Wheels, although these tend to resemble car shows with camping, music stages and trade stalls and as such do not satisfy the desires of most cruisers so illegal cruising continues.

[edit] Magazines

Cruising and modifying have long been represented in the commercial magazines Max Power, Fast Car Magazine and Redline, which review the latest cars, modifying products, cruises and feature modified cars and other lifestyle articles. Max Power is so synonymous with cruising and modifying that an outrageously styled modified car is often referred to as a "Max Power" car. This is often a derogatory term on similar lines to the American "ricer". It is interesting to note that recently (mid 2006) Max Power, the magazine that brought cruises to the forefront, have abandoned the scene they so successfully built preferring to now concentrate on "dream" cars such as £100,000 Nissan Skylines and other luxurious models that your average modified car enthusiast cannot afford. Long time rival FastCar has however picked up where Max Power left off and now covers multiple cruises across the UK in each edition of their magazine.